Brecht - Beginning 'Our Country's Good'

Wednesday 13th June 

In this week's lesson we discussed how Brecht used the idea of 'gestus' in his work and began to think about how we could use it or how it would effect different aspects of 'Our Country's Good' (as pictured below). Gestus is the idea that the gestures, body language, movement and voice of a character should be should be deliberately used and exaggerated to heighten the social comment Brecht (or the playwright) was making by using that character. The social message is therefore enhanced by that character's costume and surroundings, for example using period uniform to show the authority and era of the authorities on the convict camp.

Below are some examples we analysed in class of how Brecht used elaborate costume and sets in his work to maintain the historicism of his plays.

Here are some of our own ideas on how we could possibly stage some of the scenes from 'Our Country's Good' if we had the funds and facilities.

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